linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] x86/mm: implement free pmd/pte page interfaces

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Date:   Thu, 26 Apr 2018 22:07:37 +0200
From:   "joro@...tes.org" <joro@...tes.org>
To:     "Kani, Toshi" <toshi.kani@....com>
Cc:     "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "bp@...e.de" <bp@...e.de>,
        "tglx@...utronix.de" <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        "linux-mm@...ck.org" <linux-mm@...ck.org>,
        "guohanjun@...wei.com" <guohanjun@...wei.com>,
        "wxf.wang@...ilicon.com" <wxf.wang@...ilicon.com>,
        "stable@...r.kernel.org" <stable@...r.kernel.org>,
        "x86@...nel.org" <x86@...nel.org>,
        "akpm@...ux-foundation.org" <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        "willy@...radead.org" <willy@...radead.org>,
        "hpa@...or.com" <hpa@...or.com>,
        "catalin.marinas@....com" <catalin.marinas@....com>,
        "mingo@...hat.com" <mingo@...hat.com>,
        "will.deacon@....com" <will.deacon@....com>,
        "Hocko, Michal" <MHocko@...e.com>,
        "cpandya@...eaurora.org" <cpandya@...eaurora.org>,
        "linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org" 
        <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] x86/mm: implement free pmd/pte page interfaces

On Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 05:49:58PM +0000, Kani, Toshi wrote:
> On Thu, 2018-04-26 at 19:23 +0200, joro@...tes.org wrote:
> > So the PMD entry you clear can still be in a page-walk cache and this
> > needs to be flushed too before you can free the PTE page. Otherwise
> > page-walks might still go to the page you just freed. That is especially
> > bad when the page is already reallocated and filled with other data.
> 
> I do not understand why we need to flush processor caches here. x86
> processor caches are coherent with MESI.  So, clearing an PMD entry
> modifies a cache entry on the processor associated with the address,
> which in turn invalidates all stale cache entries on other processors.

A page walk cache is not about the processors data cache, its a cache
similar to the TLB to speed up page-walks by caching intermediate
results of previous page walks.


Thanks,

	Joerg